SPIERS, Charlotte Horn

1844 - 1914

Charlotte Horn Spiers was born at 14 St Giles’s Street, Oxford on 5 December 1844 and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 6 January 1845, daughter of Richard James Spiers (1806-28 September 1877), a stationery manufacturer, and his first wife Elizabeth Phené née Joy (1818-28 October 1858), who married at St Mary's Church, Oxford on 15 July 1837 and had 13 children in 18 years. Richard had two shops, fancy articles at his shop in the High Street and china at 46 Corn Market. In 1851, Charlotte was a 6-year-old, living at 14 St Giles Street, Oxford with her parents, 44-year-old Richard and 32-year-old Elizabeth and two siblings, Alice Jane Mary 5 and Bessie Joy Spiers. She continued to live with her father at 14 St Giles Street until about 1871 when she went to live at 21 Bernard Street, St Pancras, London with three of her brothers, Richard Phené (1838-1916), an architect; Walter Lewis (1841-1925), who became curator at the Sir John Soane Museum, and Ernest George (1854-1896). Charlotte's early career was spent at the Minton, Kensington Gore workshops where she worked as a freelance artist in partnership with another successful Minton artist, Ellen Welby (1851-1936) and in 1882 they had a business at 68 Newman Street, Oxford Street, London as Misses Spiers & Welby, art pottery painters. A regular, and well regarded, exhibitor in the professional category of the H & J china painting exhibitions, and frequently won prizes and commendations for her work. In 1878 she won first prize 'for her boldly-painted group of irises' as noted in 'The Exhibition of Paintings on China' in 'Magazine of Art' (1878). In 1891, a 46-year-old artist, still living with her brother Richard at 21 Bernard Street and had been joined by sister Elizabeth and they were still there in 1901. Charlotte painted several pictures in an around the Walbersick area and was a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1890-1903 and exhibited from 4 Berners Street, London in 1890, 'A Cloudy Day, Bramford', 'At Bramford' and 'Runton Gap, Cromer', in 1891 'Beeston Common, Cromer', 'East Runton, Norfolk' and 'Williton, Somersetshire', in 1893 'At Walberswick', 'On the Blyth, Suffolk' and from 21 Bernard Street, London in 1898, 'At Hayling Island', 'Common Staithe, Kings Lynn' and 'Stiffkey, Norfolk', in 1899 'Mischief', 'The Age of Innocence' and 'Old Whitby', in 1900 'The Arson Meadows, Hampshire' and 'Mill at Hemmingford Grey, Huntingdonshire', in 1902 'Crowland Abbey, Lincolnshire' and her last exhibits at Ipswich was in 1903 'West Wycombe' and 'Kessingland, Suffolk'. She also exhibited at the Royal Academy and regularly at the Society of Women Artists; New Gallery; Royal Society of British Artists; Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours; Royal Society of British Artists and others. Charlotte Horn Spiers was of 21 Bernard Street, Russell Square, London when she died at Christchurch, Hampshire on 7 September 1914, aged 69, she was unmarried.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 68 Newman Street, Oxford Street, London
1881 801 On the Wye - watercolour
from 4 Berners Street, London
1897 1368 On the Road to the Sea, Stiffkey, Norfolk - watercolour
1901 1167 In the Marshes, Kessingland - watercolour
from 21 Bernard Street, Russell Square, London
1906 966 The Old Windmill: Brill, Bucks - watercolour
1911 835 Cornfield, Shalbourne, Berks - watercolour

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Works by This Artist